First Costume - Visas Marr

[Guest Anonymous]

No, that makes perfect sense. I'll see what I can manage. Unfortunately, this would have been a lot more helpful at least a month ago. Having not had any comments on the matter, I'd been about to wash my actual fabric and cut it out for both the dress and the veil. It's sitting next to the washer right now. I guess my procrastination paid off for once!

[Guest Anonymous]

Busy weekend, but I won't have internet access for a bit, so I'm posting these now. This is the second reason I thought I was ready to start cutting out fabric! The facings worked out, and I managed to put in a waist seam (at least in the front). I won't bother to post any pics of me wearing it until I put a zipper in; right now it's like a pinafore. And no, it hasn't been ironed at all! *cringes*

 

 

 

[Guest Aysel]

you're waist turned out better than mine and your sleeves are lovely. good work so far!

 

Katie

[Guest Anonymous]

It's looking great, but in the picture, the skirt looks kinda thin. The skirt should be A-line and have some fullness in the bottom. But it should have a slope from your hips down .

[Guest Aysel]

that might be because it's on a dress mannequin, if not, adding a panel in the back wouldn't be hard.

[Guest Anonymous]

You're probably right padme. I hacked out a lot of the skirt from the original pattern. But as I'm doing the comic version, it definitely wouldn't hurt to add a few more inches, would it? Any suggestions? It's nearly 60" around at the bottom right now.

 

Here are the photos with the zipper in, so it is wearable! Are the sleeves the right length? Once they're cut out, I can't make them any longer, the way I've done this.

 

 

[Guest Anonymous]

I think your sleeves look great . Yeah, I don't think it would hurt to have more inches in the skirt .

[Guest Aysel]

your sleeves are the perfect length. As for the skirt you'll know whether you'll need to add any once you put the over dress on

 

good work so far

 

[Guest Anonymous]

I know it's been a while, but on the upside, I got to go to my first con! Awesome, I must say!

I'm working on a mock-up of the outer dress now. This is what I have so far. It's not perfect, but it seems workable.

 

 

[Guest Anonymous]

So this is how things are shaping up. It also appears there is something on my camera lens... Have to deal with that sometime!

 

[Twi'lek Pam]

That is coming along nicely. I like the shape of the sleeve cap. I think the collar might need to be a bit taller, it doesn't quite have the "turtleneck" look to it.

 

 

When you walk in the red dress, does it hinder your movements or keep you from taking long strides? It looks like it might be a bit of a hobble skirt with the bottom edges turning in. (Though it looks okay, covered by the outer dress.)

 

 

I have problems with those dots on pictures from time to time, too. I think it's from lint on the lens. It's always the most noticable with black costumes!

 

Pam

[Guest Anonymous]

Ha ha! You caught me - I haven't worked on the underdress at all since padme9055 pointed out that it probably wasn't full enough.

 

And as for the neckline: I agree. It was my first crack at it and if I'm being honest, I was trying to keep it short. It was a completely vain decision; I can't pull an actual turtleneck off. Obviously, this was too much on the safe side. As soon as I tried it on I noticed that it lays flat/doesn't stand away slightly like it should.

 

Well, I guess you win some, you lose some. Both the cap sleeves and the neck were hand-drawn and done without a pattern. Next time I work on this, I'll see if I can remedy that issue.

[Twi'lek Pam]

I couldn't manage a properly sewn turtleneck on my outer dress, either. The vinyl is so stiff, it just wouldn't cooperate. I could get the outer shape to work, but I couldn't get it to fold under and match up to the seam on the inside. (Fabric is evil, vinyl is evil times two!) In the end, I had to turn under the top edge and just tack it down with fabric glue instead of sewing it. You can't tell from the outside, and it's working so far!

 

Good luck!

 

Pam

[Guest Anonymous]

Time hasn't been on my side lately, and for those of you with sharp eyes, the underdress mock-up hasn't been fixed. Here's a overdress mock-up in the fabric I have to work with. Luckily, I have loads of it. Unfortunately, neither side of it is black. One thing at a time...

 

 

And a somewhat blurry pic of the boots I'll be using for the time being.

 

[Guest Anonymous]

Others may disagree, but I don't actually think her overdress is a true black. In the pictures where you can see it directly next to her gloves, the gloves are definitely darker. Though in your picture your fabric looks slightly brownish (that may just be the camera flash playing tricks though) and I don't think it's meant to be that, either.

[Guest Aysel]

3 things, first you have some puckering going on in the bust darts, that needs to be fixed, second the slit up the the front starts from just below the hip so yours needs to be higher (easy to fix), and last is that the outer dress needs to be black (it's in the standards and that's what we have to work with) this can be achieved through some black matte vinyl paint since the fabric you have isn't black. You may want to see if you can try to paint the inside as well, at least the parts that can be seen when you walk. The length is good as are the sleeves. Before you construct the final version I really recommend painting the pinwheels on first then putting it together, you'll have less over spray issues. I hope this helps you

 

Katie

[Guest Anonymous]

E. Hyde: You make an interesting point on the colour. It may be open to interpretation, but I'd rather play it safe with boring, old black! The colour the fabric is currently makes me cringe - not just deep bronze, but SHINY. Ick.

 

Aysel: I knew I wouldn't be able to pull off darts; those are ordinary seams. This was also my best shot. Do you have any directions on how I would fix that kind of issue? Surely it wouldn't make or break my admission??

[Guest Aysel]

did you put notches in the seam line? if you didn't, try doing that and see if the seam lays down, ultimately the seams need to be smooth otherwise it detracts from the over all appearance of the dress.

[Twi'lek Pam]

He he... Aysel, we're typing at the same time again, with the same answer!

 

I used to have a really hard time with the bust seams, too. They'd come out with puckers every time, no matter how hard I tried to sew them smoothly. Then, I had a "duh" moment when I finally understood what the pattern instrucstions were telling me to do, and ever since then they're not a problem at all!

 

The problem is that one side of the fabric seam has a LOT of curve (usually the center front of the dress), while you have to sew that curve to the outer (armpit) side of the front, which usually curves only slightly, and often in the opposite direction!

 

First, you MUST sew a line of "stay stitching" along the side that has the least amount of curve. It's usually the side panels, but not always. It depends on the pattern you are using. The pattern tells you where to sew that line. Stay stitching is just a sewn line that keeps the fabric from stretching out of shape, and it usually goes about 1/2 inch from the edge of the fabric. Sew that line!

 

Then, use scissors to clip the edges of the fabric almost to that sewn line, but definitely not all the way. I usually cut the lines about one inch apart on the areas where there is less curve to match up, and a half inch apart on the areas that have a lot of curve to match.

 

Next, lay down the piece of fabric that doesn't have the stay stitching and clipped spots, vinyl side up. Lay the stay-stitched and clipped piece of fabric vinyl side down over it, and line up the guide notches. Pin there. (By the way, it's MUCH easier to pin perpendicular to the fabric edge, rather than making the pins run parallel along the seam line. It lets you sew much closer to the pin before you have to pull out the pin, and it's much easier to pull out the pin because you don't have to worry so much about the pin getting stuck under the press foot.)

 

Pin all along the curve, and you'll find that the places where you snipped the fabric will fan out, allowing the less-curved fabric to perfectly match the more-curved fabric.

 

Stitch on the seam line, with the clipped edge still on top. Be sure to sew outside of the stay stitching, or else that line will show up when you press the seam open.

 

After sewing the seam, cut out wedge shaped notches in the seam allowance of the outer curve to help it lay flat... but be sure not to cut too close to your stitches!

 

 

Try a search for "sewing princess seams" to find a better explanation of what I was trying to describe. Princess seams are hard to figure out at first, but once you get the hang of it, they're no problem at all!

 

Here's a couple examples I found with a quick search, but I'm sure there are more out there:

 

 

http://www.blogforbettersewing.com/2010 ... seams.html

 

 

Pam

[Guest Anonymous]

Oh! I've done that before! I threw all that out the window when I stopped using patterns. I'd asked previously about what kind of curve leatherette would take, but never got an answer. If that's all I have to do, it'll be an easy fix when I do the actual overdress. Thanks SO much Pam.